Click to view the Radio-Canada TV report on Imam Foudil Selmoune advocating for stoning and “cut[ting] the hands of people who have money and who steal.” [In French]
Author: Ted Rath
Source: Toronto Sun, July 4, 2016
Original title: Controversial imam whose mosque hosted Canada Day citizenship ceremony denies he supported stoning women or cutting hands of thieves / Archive.Today
The imam of a controversial Montreal-area mosque that hosted a Canada Day citizenship event denies he advocated cutting the hands off thieves or stoning women.
In 2011, Imam Foudil Selmoune told a Radio-Canada journalist: “We don’t cut hands off just anyone. We cut the hands of people who have money and who steal.”
Of stoning, he said: “But we have to ask why did God make these laws? It’s to create a society that is healthy, pure and balanced.”
On Monday, Selmoune said his words were “twisted.”
“I never said that,” he told the Sun. “I never said we should apply Sharia law across Canada or cut the hands off people who steal or stone women.”
He said he was simply responding to a request to recite some pieces of Islamic law and was taken out of context.
Justin Trudeau, as a prime ministerial hopeful in 2014, was roundly criticized for visiting the Brossard Islamic Community Centre in a campaign-style tour.
This past Canada Day, Liberal MP Alexandra Mendes held a citizenship ceremony at the mosque — a move that was blasted by many in her riding.
As well as the imam’s past comments, the mosque has a reputation for extremism.
It donated money to IRFAN-Canada before the group was declared a terror organization. And it was also the place of worship for one man convicted in an Ottawa terror plot.
Misbahuddin Ahmed received a 12-year sentence in 2014 after being found guilty of conspiring to facilitate a terrorist activity and participating in the activities of a terrorist group. He was a regular at the mosque.
Selmoune said his mosque can’t be condemned for funding a group before it knew the money was funneled to support terror. He said the mosque has seen at least 2,000 worshippers in his years there, and he can’t be responsible for their actions.
“An imam cannot know the hearts and minds of everyone who comes to worship here,” he said Monday.
Mendes organized the citizenship event at the Brossard mosque to combat “the feelings of exclusion and resentment felt by the Muslim community in our riding,” according to a post on Facebook defending the location.
Mendes took to social media after apparently fielding response from angry constituents about holding the citizenship ceremony there.
She said the ceremony had “absolutely no religious content.”
Selmoune said he was happy to host the celebration, and said it was a “total success.”
“It united all the community members around the Canadian flag,” he said. “This is a message to Canada that Muslims are a part of Canada and not to be feared.”
Further reading
Point de Bascule: FILE Islamic Community Centre of the South Shore of Montreal
